I think it's numbers and the relationship between the numbers. Then it's about looking around you in the world and thinking about how to describe the things around you as numbers and relationships.
This video made me realize I was never actually good at math, I was just really good at memorizing patterns/answers for math exams. Only to forget all of it soon after, since I don't get to use that level of math often. I'm definitely interested in learning it now, since my future career requires it (3D software engineer).
To give you a feedback regarding the question if anyone can do math... I suck at math. Always hated it. But currently working on a pretty sophisticated procedural modelling algorithm for Blender that requires fair amount of mathematical thinking regardless. Am I good at math? Hell no. But just like it was already said in the video, I sit down and work it anyway. Results are there and they keep me motivated to work it further even more every day.
Just this. Like, in order to pay something I am low at calculating how much I'll spend and how much I will get in return But i do a lot of programming, from working with Python to handling Differential Equations on Matlab and I get pretty good at the concepts and abstractions, but i left the computing part to the computer to get those numbers
@@Nuss-j4syes, proving it yourself. People forget that when studying math by yourself, you have to be sure of the correctness of your answer. Which is the hard part. You can't simply always ask or find answers online for every math problem you do
Fun fact! Some people have a learning disability called dyscalculia, resulting in difficulty comprehending arithmetic, which can massively hinder their ability to learn maths. However, while it makes it much more difficult to understand maths, we've developed techniques to visualise and explain the concepts better to students with this expertise, and it's not impossible to get a good grade if they have proper help and put in enough effort. (Enough, unfortunately, being a lot in this case). While I'm not an expert on this, coincidently, my mom actually is, and she does one-on-one tutoring with quite a few students, including those with dyscalculia and those with a lower IQ. Quite a few students struggled but did a good job on the exams, so it's never impossible to improve your maths skills, even a little bit. But by no means does that mean it will always be easy.
I grew up struggling with math most of my life. Fast forward and I'm 36, taking physics and calculus in university and I'm doing well. The problem most people have is they never learned the foundations so they struggle.
Those are the teachers that say ”you don’t need to understand why, just remember it”. Ehhh??!😮 I’m taking a guess now, but students would probably remember IF they understood what they are doing instead of tubling around in a fog filled with numbers and problems they don’t know how to tackle.
Yes! I was naturally pretty good at math but got completely disinterested in it after asking my teacher why a certain thing worked and they replied with "don't worry about that, it just is". 20 years later I'm finally picking math up again now I have the resources to ask why and get an answer.
It's often times the "why" that's hard to understand for some people, myself included, and I went through 4 years of undergrad and 2 years of grad school in engineering. Some people are just not mathematically-minded (me) no matter how it's taught. They have a harder time than their peers getting it (me), and it is dry material to them (me). That's okay. Just like not everyone can be artists. The aptitude to learn a particular subject varies across minds.
@@soilgrasswaterair The reason for that is because understanding the proof of something is much, much more difficult than simply accepting it and applying it as is. Comprehending and believing that pi is infinite and nonrepeating can be done in the fifth grade or even earlier. Understanding the proof is way, way above the skill level of a fifth grader.
Awesome video. I was really bad at math in high school, I was really good at other subjects but really disliked and was bad at maths. When I started uni I realized how important maths are and I changed my toughts about it, started studying computer science and now I currently really like pure mathematics and using proof assistants like Coq, Agda and Lean to formalize mathematics and software. I know a lot of people like me that was good/normal at humanities but hated maths. I think if you want to be good at it you can. But tbh i think the reason many dislike maths or think that they aren't good is that even at the level of linear algebra, calculus, etc. the subjects are boring. I think it only gets interesting after that when you have "mathematical maturity" and can formalize (or make mathematical models) and prove stuff by yourself: it becomes like a second language.
For many decades, I was The Guy Who Hated Math. I worked around needing it. When I eventually, very late in life, was in a place where I had to learn some, I was old enough to be able to see math in a way that worked for me. I was able to see the actual FUN in it. Sadly no school can really teach to each individual directly. Math suffers from this more than a lot of other things.
Been on a kick of watching videos on this topic and yours is probably the most thoughtful and well studied I’ve watched so far. I’m one of those who has attempted to learn math time and time again but hit a deadlock at anything above college Algebra (and I only passed that out of pity from the professor). Took me a while to narrow my bereft down to complex fractions, logarithms and weirdly any geometry beyond like “find the area”. Then I come to recall that every one of those subjects was the favorite “you fail this test” topics of Ms. May the misanthropic High School Geometry teacher. Math trauma is a real thing, sadly, and because of her I can find no fulfillment in math beyond a certain point. Luckily I went into the trades and have not graphed or factored anything the past 20 years, and May died just a few years ago.
Lol, sadly too many people have had parents like this which is no way to make someone get better. Once my dad went on a walk to calm himself down, when he tried to teach me about some historic event for an upcoming exam in high school. Why is the go to thing ”shouldn’t you know this”, when there still is a struggle. So mean😂❤
Math is like art. You will never be Michelangelo. You can try. But there is a natural baseline you are either born with or not. Like being able to understand why you don't understand something is a natural baseline for learning itself. Which many people don't have.
In my case I can manipulate numbers and values really easily and have good logical thinking. I play a lot of puzzle games. Like I know whats going on in each step and I can visualize in my head but my working memory is terrible. It takes me some extra time to do math in my head which is why I use a calculator even for simple steps. just wanted to share my experience with math.
I feel like this is the video I needed. Had damn near a mental breakdown studying and failing the first Calc II test of the semester yesterday. I've been out of practice and college so it's a struggle to derust
found ur account yesterday and i ended up here because i was tryna figure out is it only me who struggles with cs and coding or is it everyone else as well and after watching your last video im damn sure its a universal thing. lovee youu
Yep, thought I sucked at maths my whole life - bad working memory etc. Went to uni in my late 20's to study science, took optional mathematic path modules and achieved 1sts. We tend to have an idea of what someone who's good at maths looks like; quick to sum numbers etc, but that's only one small area. *I should add, I'm still not good, but achieved more than I imagined.
Hey Maria, I just wanted to say how much I admire your work! Your creativity and passion really shine through, and it's hard not to have a little crush on the amazing content you create. Keep being awesome! I think I'm in love❤
I'll say this video was perfect for me. I'm extremely logical thinking and analytical but I have always struggled with doing or enjoying math. When it comes to feeling good about myself, I'm not very good at that lol lately it feels like I'm bad at learning as I get older. It is so nice to see some form of data, as well as personal reports, about this subject as that is what specifically speaks to me. Not "i believe" or some woowoo - just raw data and multiple anecdotal experiences on it to show what may be truer. It shines through uncertainty for me; and uncertainty is a bitch.
We humans, by design, are capable of using, in extremely sophisticated ways, words and quantities. So, yes, we can do math. We just need to work at it, ask questions, try to find answers. The price is effort and good sources. Being mad at your teacher, at yourself, at the world, etc., are obstacles. You CAN do math. Remove the obstacles (your negative emotions). Focus. One step at a time. One topic at a time. It is possible.
It has to be said that those stats don't mean anything without the accompanying demographics. It makes sense for the US to be below all of Europe because it's much more diverse than Europe and there are significant IQ differences between groups. You can't really just compare the stats sadly, not even with other American stats when there are millions immigrating yearly.
The problem with math in school is that you don't have a nice project going that than needs the math you have to learn. For example building a small rocket with some additional functions. Or a robot, there are so many interesting things that schools could do in math classes besides solving boring text book exercises over and over and over and over and over AND OVER again!
Two of my math classes, had free-response projects. 6th grade, we had a project to plan a park that we'd lay out on graph paper, and determine the size of all the features of the park at scale. So determining how big a bench would be, or a picnic table, or a person, a statue, and so forth. 7th grade pre-algebra, we had a 3D modelling project, where we'd build a 3D project out of the shapes we learned about, and determine surface area and volume of the various elements, and come up with why you'd want to know surface area and volume in a real life application of the model.
Mathematics makes heavy demands on working memory capacity and processing speed - the more advanced the mathematics, the greater the demands are - since mathematical reasoning involves holding many abstract variables in imagination at once and manipulating them before they're lost (working memory is highly volatile). It also just so happens that working memory capacity and processing speed are the main factors underlying IQ. Given the average IQ of mathematicians is 143 from US employment data, with the lowest recorded score being 115, I would imagine that you're probably at least 130 if you've got a maths and cs degree; you may not feel like anything special intellectually, but that's probably just because you surrounded yourself with other people with high IQs so have a warped perception of the intellectual capacity of the average person. I just don't see someone with average intelligence ever grasping the epsilon-delta definition of a limit, let alone studying Galois theory or algebraic topology.
As you mentioned I dont trust myself or have confidence my solutions. I have a problem with the correctness of math solution/method. Which is the hard part for me. I can't simply always ask or find solutions online to verify every math problem I do. I will be sure of myself that the solution is correct only to be proven wrong which then leaves me with doubt for future math problems I solve.
I'm quite good at math, and I've learned enough math to study quantum mechanics. But I don't have good enough conscientiousness skills to see things through to the end. My "math muscles" are only useful for solving problems (like in the context of a project). I'll quite literally solve the problems in my subconscious. But once the problem is solved, that's it. All of my passion is gone and I end up bouncing around to the next problem...usually in a subject I already know. This is probably due to being tired from solving problems at work as well. I've been trying to study finite element analysis for months now, but my career doesn't require it, so I'm never driven enough to see it through. I can't count how many times I've reviewed the first chapter of my FEA textbook. Most problems that you get paid for don't require high-level math unfortunately.
Maths have a genius problem. If you were to tackle a problem that you don't know other people are solving in half the time, you'd probably just stick to it. But given how even our learning processes are permeated by society, and how the recurring narrative is to show the exceptional cases, of course you'll never feel like you fit in. And by then, it's only a matter of time before you abandon your path if you don't have a compelling reason to learn.
Math is literally just a set of rules that apply to a set of objects. In that sense, if you can learn to tie your shoes, you can learn math. Now, how deep you can understand the connection between rules and their implications on one another is a different story.
Knowing my sister I'd say no. Because some girls can be really dense when it comes to getting the basics. And even if they do, they'll forget about it the next day and have to be taught all over again
My take is that it's that most maths teachers lack imagination. I've been taking some maths class as of recent and had serval different tutors. They talk like "x equals this and so on." But really, why is x important? why are lines important? What can you do with this? Programmers, on the other hand, are very creative because they can turn a sequence into something tangible
i was really good at math i was in the top of the school in my childhood but year after year i got stuck with really bad teachers that make me hate doing math i was from the top to the bottom after highschool
Basic math concepts take awhile for me to get especially how we get a bell shaped curve through a negative exponential gaussian distribution, but I would prefer symbols than doing proofs in maths. Man, did I do bad in proofs class. I guess I just will never understand the logic connected to mathematics. I'm sticking with graduate Economics where I learn concepts such as economic growth, which is really just derived from the biological sciences. But economics is nice cause it's like applied math where you can learn math not only from equations, but learn about it along with the graphs behind them.
anyone can learn math. I'm a high school drop out that went to Georgia Institute of Technology for five years. I made a C in calculus 3. It was tough, but I was young back then. I also started college at 17 then I aged to 19 then I was accepted into a top university. I never passed high school math. I had a F in algebra 2 at age 16 then I dropped out. Good luck with math, it's not hard.
its true i went to further maths and mechanics 1- 3 night classes just to see how far i could push myself and wrote my national exams in 2 years and passed with B's @ age 26
Coding is lanauge, it's not "math". Math is a language but it's far more important to understand the relationship of English and the computer language than math and the computer language
for me I like maths because I use it in physics which I like . I think those who have patience and having good grasp on fundamentals of maths can learn easily relative to others.but sometime things gone terrible for me it was complex no., binomial ,probability etc. and somtimes like I am a math lover in topic like pre calculus ,calculus, algebra, trignomatric, set theory sequence and bla... bla...bla.beacuse I like to find pattern in question.
A lot of people (me) think they're bad at math and then once they actually try it's not that hard lmao. you just have to put the work in. It's obvi harder for some people but most give up too soon.
Maths is problem solving at it's core. Mental arithmetic is just a skill that you train. You can be decent at maths and shit at mental arithmetic. Case and point, this guy (me).
u look prettier in thumbnails. :P If ya'll ever think you can't learn math, read 'Men of Mathematics'. If people in those books could do it, anyone can do it.
*Coeficiente intelectual *Traumas *Malas experiencias *Enfermedades mentales *Las matemáticas en nuestro caso, No es nuestro objetivo, es un obstáculo que se debe atravesar para lograr el objetivo. Nuestro objetivo es ser ingenieros, informáticos, estadísticos, físicos, o cualquier carrera. Las matemáticas vienen luego de que nos damos cuenta de que es necesaria para que nuestra casa no se caiga, o que nuestra estructura metálica no falle. Las matemáticas vienen después. En voleibol, el objetivo es Ganar, y por eso hacemos pesas y barras para abrirle un hueco al piso con los remates, y hacemos sentadillas y ejercicios de salto para volar encima de la red, tener medio cuerpo encima de la red. Pero no es ser superior físicamente, sino ganar. El objetivo es construir un edificio con un poquito de matemáticas, sin necesidad de ser un gran matemático.
think of it like this, if you punch a tree everyday, will your fists change? well, your brain has a lot more plasticity than your hands. ofc, assuming you will 100 years, you might not totally morph your hands to fingerless tree punchers, but you can certainly learn, or morph them. I find the idea of intelligence especially from birth redundant. we dont have sufficient techniques to examine it, at least not with some background of eugenetics :D
I cant and i can as in i cant do math until i need to math meaning if i need to buy somwthing and i jave x amount of money i can magically do quick math or if my paycheck looking low or if i want to guess how big my paycheck will be i magically can do math but if someone ask me randomly whats 2+2 ill freak out and even if i write it down i wont get it
people dont like maths because there are no jobs not because it's "hard", maths itself is awesome, but u cant make a living from maths, scientist is not a real job it's just movies
Hey maybe define "math" first ;) Do u mean basic arithmetic u can do with your calculator ? Or do u mean "mathematical demonstrations", "complex linear algebra", "topology", ... ?
What do you mean by MATH ? yeah sure learning any concept in math might be doable for most ppl... Writing proofs and reasoning about math in a scientific manner is what actual math as a skill would be, which also takes quite abit of creativity. In this regard programming and math is very similar, not because programmers use concepts that are mathematical in nature. Kinda funny that none of your interviewees are math majors.
Your comment hits the nail on the head. If you define doing math as learning high school algebra and maybe basic calculus, sure, the vast majority of people would absolutely be able to learn it. She even hints at it a little bit in the video but glosses over the fact when she says that "yes, but not all subjects". Anyone can do calculations, but mathematics is not calculating, it's developing and utilizing a very complicated machinery to tackle abstract concepts and pick them apart. If you were to ask a math major the same question, I can guarantee you that they'd say that sure, mostly everyone can learn computational stuff, but you need to have the 'right stuff' to even have a chance at actually learning the foundations of mathematics, analysis, abstract algebra and topology.
Quiero que los misiles de mi juego se muevan como en la vida real, 😢, necesito matemáticas, fórmulas de movimiento acelerado con gravedad. Necesito repasar física, ya se me olvidó. 🤔
